Change the World

“Gratitude—the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.”  Google Definitions

Gratitude is a powerful force that could change the world.  Imagine a world full of thankful and appreciative people.  A world where everyone could see all of their many blessing.  A world where people did not hesitate to return kindness.  Indeed, gratitude could change the world. 

Unfortunately, we have little control over the entire world.  We do have control over our own world however.  If we want to change our world, we simply need to be thankful.  If gratitude could change the world as a whole, there is no doubt it could change our own personal lives.  Being thankful changes everything for us.  That is the power of gratitude.

When you consider all that is going on in the world today it is easy to see we’ve lost our way in terms of being grateful.  Perhaps when we evaluate our own personal lives we can see that there is a lot of room for improvement in showing appreciation and being sincerely grateful.      

Let’s strive to be more grateful, more appreciative, more willing to see our blessings and focus on the good, and more quick to return kindness.  As we do our lives will improve.  Let’s commit to being more grateful this Holiday Season and always.  And may you and yours have a very Happy Thanksgiving!    

Change Life

So recently in a few of my last couple of blogs I’ve been focusing on becoming something that we are not and changing who we are in order to achieve greater success.  I’d like to continue on this topic for one more week because I believe it is a powerful concept and that if we truly embrace it and accept it, it will change our life. 

Regrettably I think most of us don’t get it.  Just the other day I was talking with a close friend who was very frustrated with how things were going for him in life.  He was frustrated with his work, he was frustrated with his family relationships, and he was frustrated that things were turning out for him as he had hoped.  When I asked him what he thought he needed to do to perhaps improve his current circumstances and outcomes, everything he told me had to do with something outside of himself.  He wanted things around him to change but it seemed to me that he did not want to change himself.  Unfortunately, what my friend failed to understand is that when we change ourselves, everything around us changes.

My friend is not unique in his ideas and thoughts as most of us tend to believe if things changed around us, life would be better.  Sadly we often tell ourselves ‘if our spouse would change, or if our boss would change, or if our neighbor would change, or if our school would change (etc.)…, then would we be happy, then we could be successful, then we could move forward, then things would be better for us (etc.).’  Rather than waiting for others or things around us to change, we need to refocus our efforts on changing ourselves because the only person we can control in life is ourselves.    

So though blaming unhappiness and a lack of success on things outside of ourselves is so common let’s avoid it because it only leads to stress, frustration, and sometimes even depression and hopelessness. If we decide our life’s success and happiness is solely based on things outside of ourselves, we are leaving our success and happiness completely up to chance.  

Rather than rely on the external world to change, we should instead begin to change ourselves from within.  After all, real change in our life begins with us—it always starts from within.  And only when change happens within can we progress toward real results and happiness.    

And that’s the key.  Our life results and happiness can only be blamed on one person and that is yours truly.  Let’s change ourselves and as we do, we will change the world around us for good.       

BEcome Successful! (Part 2)

“If you want to have more, you have to become more.  Success isn’t something you pursue or go after, it is something you become.  You attract success when you become the right person.  It’s not what you need to do but who you need to become.”   Jim Rohn

Today I want to elaborate a little bit more on the idea of becoming something that we may not currently be as mentioned in my blog 2 weeks ago.  I wrote that becoming something new starts with our thoughts—for how we think determines how we see the world and eventually how we make decisions and act. 

Becoming successful, or even something more, often begins with a paradigm shift.  I believe those who are truly successful see the world differently than others.  Where most see brick walls, insurmountable odds, difficult obstacles and impossibilities, the successful see something different—often something completely different.  They often see victory in the balance, the ability to defy the odds, or simply what it will be like on the other side of those brick walls.  Becoming something therefore simply begins with seeing the world and ourselves differently. 

Once we begin to see things different we take on a new perspective on life and its inherit risks and challenges.  Developing a fresh perspective in our mind of those things that surround us and our ability to control our outcomes changes what we can do and who we are.  (In my blog Life is Perspective I speak more to this and I encourage you to check it out).  Once we begin to change our perspective and how we view life, everything can begin to change for us, including our outcomes and results that lead to success.    

Our thoughts must also be centered on what I a call our personal mission.  What is your mission?!  What is the reason you wake up everyday?  Unfortunately most of us don’t have a personal mission so we wake up simply to go to work, earn a pay check, and maybe try to do something we enjoy like watching a favorite TV show or spending a little time with family or friends.  Many of us don’t really live with a purpose and we just sort of coast through life without a plan.  This can lead to drudgery and a lack of success.  Instead, we need to be on a mission everyday! 

I like to think of Mission Impossible where the objective and outcomes of the mission were clear.  It should be the same for us, our mission should be clear in our mind and we should think about it often.  What is it that motivates us every day and what do we want to do with our life?  Every day should be moving us one step closer to success because we know and understand our mission and purpose for the day so we naturally are moving toward it.  So, to become something new, we need to answer the question why, why do we wake up every day, what is our motivator, what is our personal mission? 

Once we have a mission we must also have a vision for the future.  Again our thoughts often reside in the here and now, the present.  Moment to moment we make decisions based on the moment rather than the future.  When we can focus on the future and what we eventually want to become or do, we can then begin to take steps to getting there.  Without a clear vision for the future again we will probably wander and go wherever life takes us.  So again we need to ask ourselves, where do we see ourselves in 5 years, 10 years, and 25 years?  Thinking about and having a vision of our future in our mind will help us to become successful. 

As we control our thoughts by shifting our perspective and focusing on our mission and vision we will become something we are currently not.  Becoming something rather than only doing something will lead us to true success.  It’s time to BEcome successful!! 

Be The Best

“Anyone can say they want to be the best and most talk about wanting to be number one, but only a select few are willing to put forth the work and sacrifice required to get there.”  Tim Burningham

It is basketball season and I love basketball.  All my life I’ve played and coached youth basketball teams and one thing I can guarantee is that just about every player I’ve played with or coached has said they wanted to be the best.  The problem is that saying it is the easy part.  Putting forth the work and effort to actually do it is a whole other ball game. 

So why don’t we do it?  Why don’t we make the sacrifices necessary to be the best when we all say we want to be?  To me, I think for the most part when we say we want to be the best we often are being genuine and sincere in that moment.   What I believe happens though is that we lack a true commitment, and the discipline to get there over time.  We want to be the best at that moment without considering all it will entail.  Once we fully assess what it will take to get there, we falter.  So normally our desire to be the best is conditioned on the amount of work and effort and time it will actually require of us. 

Throughout my years in sports I’ve seen great athletes who had incredible potential to be really good but they squander their talent because they aren’t willing to work hard and put forth the effort required to maximize their talents.  This is disheartening and even frustrating to me but often I think about how most of us do this in some way.  Though it may not be athletic abilities each of us have talents that we squander.  We fail to live up to the true potential of our abilities because we don’t want to work at it.  I’ve learned that this practice just seems to be plain and simple human nature.      

So believe me, I know it is hard to be the best but I think each of us can do more than we are.  Just yesterday I woke up early in the morning while traveling in Dallas.  It was still dark outside and it was pouring down rain.  It was my morning to go out for a run.  I had planned on it all week, and had recommitted to doing it in my head the night before.  But now actually facing the task I had a million excuses of why I shouldn’t go:  it was raining, it was cold, I didn’t want to have wet clothes and shoes traveling home later that evening, it was dark, I wasn’t familiar with the area, I’d probably have time in the evening to do it instead, etc.  But to be honest, believe it or not, with basketball season upon us my competitive juices kicked in and my thoughts changed.  I couldn’t help but think to myself, don’t I want to be the best I can be, don’t I want to be number one, how many others were staying home listening to the excuses inside their heads, didn’t I want to be different, isn’t this exactly what I was hoping my young athletes would do that I was coaching this season, wouldn’t I want them to push themselves and go out in the rain?  I know I got a few stares from others as I entered the hotel lobby soaking wet after my run in the pouring rain but I felt great!  

So at the beginning of this basketball season I’m making a commitment today to you that I’m going to be the absolute best I can be and not let anything stop me.  I’m going to push myself to be the best in all that I do.  I encourage you to join me and do the same.  Let’s do this together!